Born with no arms?

[Storm Raven]

but I'd give him +4 to Balance

+4 to Balance? You every try to balance without using your arms at all? More like a -8 to -16 penalty, not a bonus.

 

[Three_Haligonians]

Not to nitpick but wouldn't this be an impossibility?

I guess it could depend on where, when, and for how long you define the middle ages, but with illness, plauge, and war killing off the older population if a couple would have to have six children to grow replacements plue one more in an era when childbirth itself can kill the mother, I find it really hard to believe that most children did not survive past infancy.

Well, to be fair, MOST implies more than 50%, and in that estimate, I am wrong. However, I'm not too far off the mark:

"The highest estimated percentage I have encountered is a 50% death rate, although 30% is the more common figure. These figures include the high number of infants who died within days after birth from little-understood and wholly unpreventable illnesses that modern science has thankfully overcome."
(Melissa Snell)

Those are the stats for infant (1 year or less) mortality rates in the middle ages (in England,I believe, where mortality rates were quite low). My earlier remark about most children not surviving was a figure I was given by my old History teacher in high school, who claimed more children died in infancy than survived. Looks like he was basing his estimate on the higher end of the scale.

Among the worlds highest mortality rates right now, there are several countries that have close to a 20% infant mortality rate (200 out of every 1000 child born die in their first year).

Well, thats all I have to report on that morbid topic!

T from Three Haligonians

 

[The Souljourner]

Oh, and swimming can be done very well indeed without arms. Most fish, in fact, do not have arms.

Most fish have tails and fins.

I'd recommend the an armless person use the dolphin "stroke". That's done with arms firmly at your side. Or, in this case, ignoring arms altogether.

You actually almost never do the dolphin kick with your arms at your side, usually they are out in front of you, helping you steer. Sure, you could do it without arms, but you'd have very little control over which direction you go, and it is really difficult to breathe properly if you don't have your arms to pull your head out of the water. I've done competitive swimming, and even just treading water without arms is really really tiring. I wouldn't want to try it for any length of time.

-The Souljourner